![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-9667-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9667-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nThe only mated pair of rufous Red-tailed Hawks I’ve ever photographed.<\/p>\n
I spent much of yesterday working on a very large print order for a client that included a photo of a pair of rufous red-tails I photographed in Montana a few years ago. I spent a lot of time finding those particular shots because for some reason they weren’t linked in my organizational files and I have photos spread out over four different computers. For a while it felt like a treasure hunt where I’d end up skunked.<\/p>\n
When I eventually located them I remembered how much I liked some of them so I decided to make those unusually red hawks the subject of today’s post.<\/p>\n
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1\/640, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Over several years the mated pair eventually seemed almost like old friends of mine. I found them in the same group of trees in early summer for at least three consecutive years. The rufous coloration of both birds gave me confidence that they were the same hawks each year.<\/p>\n Females are larger than males but these two obviously bonded birds seem fairly close to the same size. But after checking out several other photos I have of them I believe the female’s on the right in this shot. As you’ll see in the following photos her belly is much lighter in color than the male’s belly but both birds are quite red overall.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Several times when I had them in my viewfinder I could tell by their behavior that some other bird was dive bombing them. But at first I couldn’t ID the attacker because I kept my eye glued to the viewfinder with my lens aimed at the hawks.<\/p>\n At one point because of the harassment (or for some other reason) the female on the right took off and landed in a conifer some distance away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/500, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It was only at that point that I was able to positively ID their tormentor – an angry male American Kestrel. He buzzed her several times after she landed in the tree and she obviously wasn’t happy about it.<\/p>\n After at least three consecutive years of finding these hawks in the same area I never found them again in following years. I still wonder what became of them.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The only mated pair of rufous Red-tailed Hawks I’ve ever photographed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-9744-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9744-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/red-tailed-hawk-9729b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"red-tailed-hawk-9729b-ron-dudley\\"")
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